Iraq justice minister may offer partial concession to kidnappers

According to unconfirmed reports, the Tawhid and Jihad group then restated its intention to kill the UK engineer – but has not given any deadline for the execution.

A video released early on Saturday morning warned the men would be murdered unless women prisoners were released from Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr jails within 48 hours.

Mr Bigley is now thought to be the only man who could still be alive in the militants’ hands, after the three were seized from the garden of their home in the wealthy al-Mansour district of Baghdad without a struggle last Thursday.

The Guardian newspaper reported today that Iraq’s justice minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan would release biological weapons scientist Rihab Taha later today and hold a hearing on whether to release the second detained woman Huda Amash, also a weapons scientist.

He told the newspaper: “It has nothing to do with the kidnapping. They have all been co-operative and we have decided to release them on bail.

“In the Huda Amash case the Americans insist she should stay in detention and we said she should be released.”

A female family member at the Wigan home of Mr Bigley’s elder brother, Stan, said: “Mr Bigley has gone to his mother’s house. All the brothers are together, waiting for the worst.”

The news of Mr Hensley’s apparent murder is further agonising proof of the ruthlessness of the kidnappers to Mr Bigley’s family, who have appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene and save the engineer’s life.

Tony Blair personally contacted the family yesterday, just hours after Foreign Secretary Jack Straw contacted the hostage’s relatives to assure them everything possible was being done to secure his release.

On Monday night, horrific video footage showing the beheading of Mr Armstrong was broadcast on a website and a body believed to be his was later recovered.

In the video, a speaker indicated the remaining two hostages would be killed one at a time, saying: “Abide by our demand in full and release all the Muslim women, otherwise the head of the other will follow this one.”

On a website last night, an apparent message from the kidnappers stated: “The nation’s zealous children slaughtered the second American hostage … after the end of the deadline … We will provide you with film of the slaughter soon, God willing.”

Later a brief statement posted on a different website that has carried posting from the Tawhid and Jihad group in the past threatened to kill a British hostage, apparently referring to Mr Bigley, if women prisoners in Iraq are not freed. It could not be authenticated.

The statement, which appeared to be an expanded version of the earlier message referring to a second execution, said: “The British prisoner will get the same fate if the British government doesn’t do what it has to. The blood of Muslims is not water! The honour of Muslim women will not go to waste.

“You, Bush, die with rage, and you, Blair, cry blood.”

The UK Foreign Office said it could not confirm reports of the execution of the second US hostage.

The British government has also made a fresh appeal on Arab television for information on the captives, stressing it was impossible for them to meet the kidnappers’ demands and “not even one” female prisoner was under UK control.

A UK Foreign Office spokesman said the government would not change its stance and give in to the kidnappers, who have demanded the release of all women held in Iraq prisons.

“We just cannot. It would be open season for the terrorists,” he said.

The US military said no women are held at either prison, although it says two female “security prisoners” are held elsewhere.

They are believed to be Dr Rihab Taha, the former head of the Iraqi regime’s biological weapons programme and known as “Dr Germ”, and biologist Dr Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, also nicknamed “Chemical Sally” or “Mrs Anthrax”.